Weekend takeaway: 10 tech stories you need to read right now

Movidius is key to Google's new VR headset; plans to make Ireland a global medtech hub; and 20 ways to romance a geek on Valentine's Day

Ten nuggets of knowledge to take away for the weekend, including: Irish chip firm Movidius could be key to Google’s revolutionary new VR headset; plans to make Ireland a global medtech hub; and 20 ways to romance a geek on Valentine’s Day.

Google is believed to be working on a revolutionary new VR headset that requires neither smartphones or PCs to track motion, and chips from Irish tech player Movidius are reportedly powering the new concept in VR. This could be just one dimension of Google and Movidius’ machine-vision partnership.

In the 1990s as CEO of Eircell (now Vodafone) Stephen Brewer masterminded the country’s love affair with mobile phones. Ireland was one of the first countries in the world to launch prepay and Brewer competed aggressively with Denis O’Brien’s Esat Digifone. Today, he is back in Ireland to help the next wave of entrepreneurs take on the world.

Cloud, data analytics and digital marketing were the top skills that got Irish professionals hired during 2015, according to LinkedIn. And it appears science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills will dominate hiring trends through 2016 and beyond.